The Stingiest Man in New York
by Daniel Fielder
Summary: On Christmas Eve, Erik Lehnsherr, a stingy New Yorker, is visited by spirits to convince him to change his ways before it's too late.
1. Erik Lehnsherr

The X-Men with Rankin Bass. Merry Christmas! … In June…

Disclaimer: The X-Men and any other Marvel characters I use in this belong to Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, Marvel Comics, and their respective creators while the Stingiest Man in Town belongs to Rankin-Bass. I own nothing.

* * *

 **The Stingiest Man in New York**

Prologue: Erik Lehnsherr

 _Holly-ho!_

 _Holly ho-ho-ho!_

 _Holly ho! Tally ho!_

 _Sing a Christmas Carol written long ago._

Kurt Wagner was hanging out in Erik Lehnsherr's house when we walked up.

" _Written long ago._ " Kurt repeated when he noticed us. "Ze merriest of Merry Christmases to you."

"Who are you?" I asked?

"Who am I?" Kurt exclaimed. "Kurt Wagner. Velcome to ze home of ze kindest and most generous man in New York, Erik Lehnsherr." Kurt continued.

"What?" My friend Rob asked in shock.

"You're surprised I call Erik kind and generous." Kurt observed. "Vell, you can take my vord for it. True, Mr. Lehnsherr wasn't always so jolly. Zere vas a time vhen he vas as mean and miserable as ze counting house in vhich he conducted his business. Ze offices of Lehnsherr and Worthington. Now Warren Worthington vas dead to begin vith, but old Erik never paid to have Worthington's name crossed out.

 _There was a mean and stingy man_

 _Named Erik Lehnsherr._

 _His heart was hard and cold_

 _Because he was the devil's fare._

 _While he set down to count the gold_

 _That is mind could never leave._

 _Young people in the square outside…_

"Merry Christmas!" Several children called out, disrupting Erik's train of thought.

Celebrated Christmas Eve.

"Away!" Erik shouted, brandishing an umbrella. "Away with you and your 'Merry Christmas'!"

The children scattered upon seeing Erik.

"Christmas." Erik scoffed as he sat back down. "Bah humbug. Humbug!"

"Zat used to be his favorite vord." Kurt explained to us. "My mom vas ze housekeeper for Erik before she passed on, so he had me stay and do my mother's old work load. Oh, Erik was a tight-fisted man. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, covetous old sinner. Until that Christmas Eve, not too long ago, vhen ze ghosts came. My new friends, allow me to tell you a Ghost Story for Christmas. _**The Stingiest Man in New York**_."

* * *

And you'll hear it too, in a few days, hopefully. So keep an eye out.


	2. Merry Christmas Uncle Erik

Chapter 1: Merry Christmas Uncle Erik

It was Christmas Eve, about two years back, and the people in the streets of New York were singing.

 _An old fashioned Christmas,_

 _With snow falling hard._

 _On scenery looking like,_

 _A pretty Christmas Card._

Inside, Kurt, the personal aid of Erik Lehnsherr, was talking with Erik's clerk, Scott Summers, while the music was going on.

 _An old fashioned angel,_

 _On top of a tree._

 _And candlelight shining down,_

 _On friends surrounding me._

Kurt did a little dance as Scott smiled when Erik burst in. Scott was a tall lean man with sunglasses hiding his brown eyes with brown hair.

"Summers!" Erik called out as the blue furred aid stopped, and Scott stood at attention. "A pretty way to be wasting my time. 'An old fashioned Christmas.' You'll be an old fashioned pauper if you don't attend to your work."

"You wouldn't discharge me, sir." Scott said nervously. "Not on Christmas Eve."

"Oh, wouldn't I?" Erik asked when a lump of coal fell out of Scott's jacket pocket. "What's this? Stealing my coal, are we?"

"For the stove, sir." Scott said meekly. "It's so damp and chilly in here."

Scott had to sneak the coal in lump by lump when Erik's back was turned; luckily, he was never severely punished for it, especially since the office was actually a little refreshing in the summers.

"Next thing, you'll be picking my pockets." Erik said with a sneer.

"Oh look, sir." Scott said as he saw a figure in a white button up shirt and black vest pass the window. "Your nephew David is coming to pay you a visit."

"What's that fool want?" Erik asked just as David popped in.

"I like him, sir." Scott said. "His smile warms my heart."

David was a young man with blonde hair like and brown eyes like his mother.

" _Merry Christmas, Uncle Erik!_ " David called out.

" _Humbug!_ " Erik called back dismissively.

" _Oh, be merry, Uncle Erik._ " David persisted.

"Ha-ha-ha." Erik said in a lackluster way.

 _What's so merry on Christmas Day?_

 _The merry money you throw away?_

 _The merry bills you have to pay?_

 _When you say 'Merry Christmas',_

 _I say bah!_

Scott shrugged at Kurt, neither of them really knew why Erik was so cold and unfeeling.

" _Here's a present, Uncle Erik._ " David said as he handed a box to Erik.

" _Humbug!_ " Erik called out as he opened the present to reveal, as he suspected, a tie.

 _I think you are a fool to waste your cash._

 _What's the present you always buy?_

 _A handkerchief or an awful tie._

 _Look at this tie, and you'll know why,_

 _When I get Christmas presents,_

 _I say trash!_

Erik tossed the tie away as it ends up wrapped around Scott's neck.

"It's you." Kurt said encouragingly.

" _But everything at Christmas is so jolly and lively._ " David continued. " _The Christmas trees and wreaths of holly._ "

" _Poison ivy._ " Erik scoffed.

" _The girls and boys who dream about St. Nicholas._ " David went on.

" _St. Nicholas?_ " Erik asked. " _Ridiculous._ "

" _Don't you like him, Uncle Erik?_ " David asked.

" _Humbug!_ " Erik called out.

' _Good old, Nicholas.'_

 _That's a lot of slosh!_

 _I abominate old St. Nick._

 _His reckless spending makes me sick._

 _I think St. Nick's a lunatic._

 _When you say 'Old St. Nicholas',_

 _I say bosh!_

"Oh, don't be so cross, Uncle." David insisted. "Come, dine with us tomorrow."

"Christmas dinner?" Erik scoffed. "What a revolting, repugnant institution."

" _Oh don't you like a juicy Christmas turkey?_ " David asked.

" _Detest it._ " Erik argued.

" _Plum pudding with a brandy sauce?_ " David went on.

" _Can't digest it._ " Erik said airily.

" _You'll get a mellow feeling for humanity._ " David went on.

"' _Humanity?' Insanity!_ " Erik called out again.

At this, Scott had to hold Kurt back at Scott's pure ire for life.

" _You'll enjoy it, Uncle Erik._ " David assured him.

" _Humbug!_ " Erik said once more.

 _It may be fun for you, but not for me._

 _I'm not happy on Christmas Day._

 _I'm never cheerful. I'm never gay._

 _If you think I could feel that way,_

 _Then you are just as stupid as can be._

 _Erik then backed Kurt back to the door._

 _If you think I'd be merry,_

 _And chirp like a canary,_

 _Then you are even dumber than a dumb bug!_

 _When you say 'Merry Christmas',_

 _I say fiddlesticks! Poppycock!_

 _And just plain humbug! Humbug!_

 _Humbug, humbug, HUMBUG!_

"I pity you, Uncle." David said calmly. "Maybe I'll never be as rich as you, but I'll go to my grave still believing in a merry Christmas."

"Good afternoon." Erik said as he opened the door for David.

"A wonderful Christmas!" David went on.

"Good afternoon!" Erik said a bit more forcefully.

"A magnificent Christmas!" David finished.

"GOOD AFTERNOON!" Erik shouted as he kicked David out of the house.

()()()()()

David picked himself up, brushed himself down and began walking, joining the carolers in song.

 _An old fashioned Christmas._

 _With snow falling hard._

 _On scenery looking like_

 _A pretty Christmas card._

 _An old fashioned angel,_

 _On top of a tree._

 _With candlelight dancing down_

 _On friends surrounding me._

* * *

Man, that kid is a rock!


	3. The Chains

Chapter 2: The Chains

As the clock chimed five, the end of the work day, Scott finished up and nervously went to Erik.

"You'll want all day off tomorrow, I suppose." Erik groaned.

"If it's convenient sir." Scott said. "After all, it is Christmas Eve."

"It's not convenient." Erik muttered. "And it's not fair. I have you pay you a day's wages for nothing. All this holiday garbage will have me in the poor house."

"Don't fall for it, Scott." Kurt muttered. Erik was a sly old business man.

"Well sir." Scott said. "If things are so bad for you, you don't have to pay me for the whole day."

"First sensible thing you've said all day, Summers." Erik said. "I'll pay you half a day, and no more."

"Alright." Scott said.

He and Erik walked out as Kurt reluctantly followed Erik. Kurt was furious at him.

 _How can anybody be so stingy?_

 _So stingy? So stingy?_

 _How can anybody be so stingy?_

 _He's the stingiest man in town!_

Erik sighed as he checked his cash box for the day, full as expected.

"Uh, you're lucky you're dead as a doornail, Warren." Erik sighed. "And not bothered with Christmas. I'm lucky too. I don't have to share the profits with you, anymore."

 _Old Lehnsherr's such a stingy man._

 _The tightest man since time began._

 _Oh he's so tight, so tight I say,_

 _He wouldn't give a bride away._

 _It hurts him so to pay one cent._

 _He wouldn't pay a compliment._

 _He uses lightning bugs at night_

 _To save the cash he pays for light._

 _How can anybody be so stingy?_

 _So stingy? So stingy?_

 _How can anybody be so stingy?_

 _He's the stingiest man in town!_

 _And when his Hurst goes rolling by,_

 _No man alive is gonna cry._

 _But you can bet his ghost will curse,_

 _Because he's paying for the Hurst._

 _And when it's time for him to go,_

 _His soul will travel down below._

 _And when he gets there, you can tell_

 _Because you'll hear old Satan yell,_

" _How can anybody be so stingy?!_

 _So stingy?! So stingy?!_

 _He's the stingiest man in town!"_

Erik went to an old house that used to belong to Worthington, having been left to Erik in his will. There was something strange about that night. The mist was so dark that it seemed like death sat in meditation. Erik went to the doorknob when suddenly it became the face of Warren Worthington! There was no mistake. He had the same goatee and sharp eyes.

"Warren?" Erik gasped. "Warren Worthington? But you've been dead for seven years! Oh, why have you come back to haunt me?!"

The doorknob returned to normal, and Erik sighed.

"Just my imagination." Erik sighed. "Bah humbug. I better get to bed."

Erik walked in as Kurt followed. His mother had been Warren Worthington's aid, and Erik inherited their use with the house.

"Didn't seem like a humbug to me." Kurt said as he passed the door nervously.

After the commotion, Erik went straight to bed, however…

 _That night when old Erik Lehnsherr_

 _Lay dreaming in his room,_

 _He heard the sound of rattling chains_

 _Come clanking through the gloom._

 _And while he lay there shivering_

 _In the icy grip of fear,_

 _The ghost of Erik's partner,_

 _Old Worthington did appear…_

Warren looked the same, but he was covered in chains and cash boxes.

"Erik Lehnsherr…" Worthington said moaning as if in pain or misery. "In life I was your partner, Warren Worthington."

"Bah!" Erik said. "You're just an hallucination!"

"See me." Worthington said as calm as the sea. "Why do you doubt your senses?"

Worthington removed his very face as his skeleton roared at him. Shocking Erik as Worthington refixed his face back on as easy as putting on a mask.

"What do you want with me?" Erik asked nervously.

"Much." Worthington explained. "Look at me. Condemned to walk the Earth in death because I wasted my life."

"Wasted?" Erik asked. "How Warren?"

"I helped myself to money." Worthington said with a weep. "Instead of helping my neighbor, and so I wear this chain of greed and heartlessness I forged in life."

 _I wear a chain. A heavy chain_

 _Is bound around my soul._

 _A chain of sin and vices_

 _That I could not control._

 _Repent your crimes. Repent in time._

 _Or you'll repent in vain._

 _For if you wait until too late,_

 _You'll never break your chains._

 _Although my chain is very long,_

 _The one you wear is longer._

 _My chain of wrong is very strong,_

 _But yours is even stronger._

 _You must escape! Escape my fate!_

 _Cast of the sins that bind you,_

 _Or you will find when you pass on,_

 _You'll drag your chain behind you!_

"But it's not right for you to be so condemned!" Erik said, applying this to himself as well. "You were only doing business in life as I do now. And business is business."

"Mankind should have been my business." Worthington said. "You still have time to repent. Reform!"

"How?" Erik asked.

"Tonight, you will be haunted by three spirits." Worthington said.

"I'd rather not." Erik said quaking for the first time in many, many years.

"Without their visits you cannot hope to shun the path I tread." Worthington retorted. "Expect the first tonight when the bell tolls one."

Worthington then walked to the window and opened it as Erik saw several people with chains like Worthington's, some were shorter, some were longer, but all looked extremely heavy to carry.

"See the phantoms that fill the night air." Erik elaborated. "Each with chains. None free, and I must go with them."

Worthington floated down to the others and turned to Erik.

"Observe and know our misery, Erik." Worthington went on. "Now we seek to do good in human matters but have lost the power forever. Repent! Repent…!"

"No!" Erik said more out of fear of the sight than refusing to repent. "NO!"

Erik shut the window as Kurt rushed to see the sight, having seen Worthington with Erik.

"Zey're gone…" Kurt said with a shiver.

* * *

Oh my… That must suck for Worthington.


	4. Little Ruthie

Chapter 3: Little Ruthie

After the shock of seeing Worthington's ghost, Erik went to sleep, and Erik was suddenly awoken when the bell of the grandfather clock down in his study stroke one.

As Erik got up, he was aware of a bright light and pulled back the curtains to reveal a figure, he was a blonde man with blue eyes and well built. He appeared to be a US army captain from the forties.

"Who are you?" Erik asked.

"I am the ghost of Christmas Past." The man said.

"Long past?" Erik asked.

"No." The man said. "Your past. You can call me Steve for simplicity's sake. Now take my hand."

Erik hesitantly took it, and all of a sudden, they were flying over the city before arriving at a smaller suburb.

"I don't know where we're going." Erik thought aloud. "But everything looks strangely familiar."

"Look upon yourself when you were younger." Steve said as he led Erik to a school house where an eleven-year-old boy with the same black hair he once had along with the same blue eyes as him was alone at a schoolhouse reading a book.

"Do you know this kid?" Steve asked.

"Know him?" Erik said. "That's me."

"Mind if I ask why you are all alone in there?" Steve asked.

"After my parents died, I just took to staying over at the old boarding school full time." Erik explained. "Give myself a chance to… To catch up on my reading."

There was a knock at the door as young Erik finished reading, and he opened it to reveal a brunette girl with dull blue eyes.

"Oh Erik, Erik!" Ruthie squealed in Polish, being that the school was in Poland, having been rebuilt following World War II. "I just talked to Mrs. Xavier, and she said she'd take care of us! We can be together all Christmas long!"

"Really?" Erik asked.

"Yes!" Ruthie insisted. "We're going to have the merriest Christmas ever, and be together always!"

"Right." Erik said with a smile as he walked off with his sister.

"Always a delicate girl who a breath might have withered." Steve stated. "But she had a big heart."

"Yes." Erik said as he began choking up. "She did."

"She died a woman and had children, right?" Steve asked.

"One child." Erik sighed.

"True." Steve went on. "Your nephew David."

"And when Ruthie died, I swore I'd never love anything again."

"But you did love again." Steve said. "Come…"

Steve took Erik's hand, and in an instant, they were off again.

* * *

I had to add this. I couldn't resist.


	5. It Might Have Been

Chapter 5: It Might Have Been

Almost an instant after watching his younger self leave with Ruthie, Erik found himself outside a building he hadn't seen in years.

"Why, this is where my first job was." Erik gaped. "Yes, old McCoy's offices. It sounds like one of his Christmas parties are going on!"

Erik looked in excitedly, acting surprisingly more like he used to rather than how he acted in the present. Erik looked in and saw himself not all that different from his present self, if a bit more joyful and still being black haired, dancing with a slender woman with brown hair and blue eyes like sapphires.

"That's me, and my fiancé, Magda!" Erik called out. "I remember it like it was yesterday. After the dance, we went out into the snow to cool ourselves. Oh, what were we whispering on that long ago day?"

"But you can't be serious, Magda." The younger Erik said plainly.

"There's no reason we can't get married now." Magda said plainly. "Don't you love me, Bruce?"

"More than the world." Erik assured Magda. "But I would rather wait until I was more secure, financially."

"No, you young fool!" Erik snapped at his former self.

"Don't say that, dear." Magda said to the past Erik. "You frighten me."

"I only want what's best for you." Erik went on.

"That's what I want too." Magda added. "A tiny cottage."

"A cottage?" Erik asked.

" _I want a gilded cottage._ " Magda explained.

" _We can't afford it yet._ " Erik explained. " _But when I've made my fortune, what mansions we will get._ "

" _I only want a little cottage with children playing on the floor._ " Magda explained calmly.

" _But darling love flies out the window when poverty comes through the door._ " Erik insisted.

 _I think of you, and my future gleams._

 _And my mind is filled with golden dreams._

 _I think of you, and I love you so._

 _All the world takes on a golden glow._

 _So hold me close, tonight._

 _And fill me with dreams of delight._

 _I think of you and your love for me._

 _And I know that life with you will be_

 _More beautiful than it seems_

 _In my golden … Dreams . . ._

As the two embraced and kissed each other, Erik could feel tears on his face.

"I…" Erik said, trying to hold back the tears. "I shouldn't have remembered."

"There is another Christmas." Steve said, and in that instant, they were just outside Erik and Worthington's old business. "You'd just formed your partnership with Worthington. Your business was new, but your ways were set."

"Oh please." Erik gasped. "Spare me the rest."

"You must drain the cup to the dregs." Steve insisted. "Recall how you drove love from your heart and replaced it with the worship of money."

"No!" Erik gasped.

"Yes!" Magda snapped at the younger Erik, both having obviously been through much darker times since the party. "Another idol has replaced me!"

"Oh really?" Erik asked dismissively. "That's going a bit far, don't you think?"

Erik then sat down and went over his books as this was a while before Scott became his clerk.

"Hm." Erik groaned. "Pym is six months in default. Do you realize how much money I stand to lose?"

"But Erik, it is Christmas." Magda insisted, closing the book.

"Christmas?!" Erik said as he shot up in anger, not for the first or last time. "Christmas is a folly, a sham, a waste of time! It's a… A humbug! Yes, yes. Christmas is a humbug."

Magda gasped and turned away.

"I… I wish to break off our engagement, Erik." Magda said.

"You can't be serious." Erik said in honest shock. "Why?"

"You've become someone I don't know." Magda said. "Someone I don't wish to know."

You've lost the beautiful tomorrow.

You really had a chance to win.

Our love has turned into a shadow

Of happiness that might have been.

"Oh phooey." Erik said as he turned his back to her, mistakenly thinking she was just hysterical.

 _It might have been_

 _A warm and wonderful romance._

 _It might have been_

 _If you had given it a chance._

 _You had the ticket to enchanted lands._

 _Why did you let it slip right through your hands?_

Unable to bare it, Magda rushed out of the building, Erik moved to follow, but he couldn't bring himself to do it and simply went back to his books.

 _I might have known_

 _A life of happiness with you,_

 _But love has flown._

 _The wrong I've done, I can't undo._

 _And now too late, my bitter tears begin._

 _Because I know… It might… Have… Been. . ._

As Erik watched his former self let Magda leave he turned to Steve.

"I can't bare it!" Erik called out. "HAUNT ME NO LONGER!"

Erik went to Steve, but all he gripped was his clock.

"Oh…" Erik sighed. "Thank heavens."

Erik went back to sleep as Kurt, having been in an adjoining room, came in just to see what was going on, when a loud laugh was heard, and Erik bolt up, and both looked down to a yellow light from the living room.

* * *

Uh-oh. Looks like the number two ghost is right on time.


	6. Yes, There is a Santa Claus

Chapter 5: Yes, There is a Santa Claus

Erik and Kurt slowly walked into the room as it was suddenly filled with grand decorations and a huge Christmas tree.

"My parlor!" Erik gaped. "What happened to my parlor?"

Erik looked around and saw a bald man in a black shirt and olive green jacket as he sat at the table.

"I am the Ghost of Christmas Present." The man said. "You may call me, Charles. Now come and know me better for you have never known the likes of me before."

"What exactly are you?" Erik asked, unsure of just how this bald man represented Christmas.

"The Christmas Spirit." Charles said as he put his hand over some toys as Erik, in them, saw many childhood memories and hopes, though that might only have been a residual effect from his previous visitor.

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit._

 _Can't you hear it? Can't you hear it?_

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit_

 _Ringing in the air._

 _Twinkling lamps and girls and boys._

 _Mingle with the jingling of joys._

 _Words of hope and happy times,_

 _Sound to the music of chimes!_

 _Jumping jacks, and dancing dolls,_

 _Tumble to the jumble of bouncing balls._

 _See the Christmas Toy Ballet_

 _Dance to the bells of the sleigh!_

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit._

 _Can't you hear it? Can't you hear it?_

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit_

 _Ringing in the air._

 _Click your heels. Point your toes._

 _Spin around and around and around,_

 _And away we go._

 _Clap your hands. Wink your eyes._

 _Jump so high, you can reach the sky!_

As the odd music seemed to be playing out of nowhere, Charles held his hand as the two were flung out the window as Charles met up with them.

"We're going to fall!" Erik called out.

"Touch the hem of my coat and be lifted." Charles said calmly as Erik did so, taking Kurt's hand as well.

"Great vay to travel." Kurt said with a gasp. "But where are we going?"

"Scott Summers' house." Charles replied.

As they arrived they looked in through the window, as before, invisible to all who saw them as Scott's wife Jean was working with their late teen daughter Rachel for dinner as Scott's brother Alex arrived.

"Hey Jean." Alex said. "I could smell that turkey all the way from church."

"But where's Scott?" Jean asked. "And Little Nate?"

At once, Scott walked in with a smile. On his shoulder was a boy who looked almost exactly like Scott but with a crutch and his leg in a brace and depressingly thin.

"Who wants to know?" Scott asked with a chuckle.

"Oh, you silly boys." Jean said as Rachel helped Nate down.

"So, how'd Nate behave in church?" Jean asked.

"As good as gold and better." Scott replied. "He told me walking home that he hoped the people saw him in church since it might be pleasant to remember on Christmas Day who made lame men walk and blind men see."

"Well, come on kids, time for dinner." Jean said as they got the food set up, with an extremely small goose.

"Oh boy, what a great dinner!" Nate said excitedly.

"Indeed." Scott said. "I propose a toast to Mr. Lehnsherr."

Everyone groaned at this.

"Come on now." Nate said. "We mustn't think poorly of him."

"Why not?!" Rachel snapped. "It's his thinking that makes us so poor!"

"Now, now." Scott responded. "Mr. Lehnsherr is the founder of the feast."

"'Feast' indeed." Jean scoffed. "With a goose no bigger than a canary for our boy."

"Oh, must I listen?" Erik asked. He'd never really seen things from Scott's view of the world, and now he had, he saw how pitiful it seemed.

"Well surely you know how Scott lived." Charles replied.

"Instead of docking Scott half a day, why didn't I give him extra for Christmas?!" Erik said angrily to himself.

"Rachel," Nate said after dinner. "Did I show you the toy soldier Santa got me, last year?"

"A hundred times, Nate." Rachel said with a laugh.

"I'll show you again." Nate said cheerfully as he suddenly fell to the floor.

"He's falling!" Erik said. "I've got to help him!"

"You cannot." Charles pointed out.

"Isn't there anything I can do?" Erik asked.

"It is perhaps too late." Charles responded.

Rachel helped Nate up and cradled him like the caring sister she was.

"Oh Nate, little buddy, are you alright?!" Rachel asked frantically as everyone else gathered around with the same look of worry on their face.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Nate said as he held up the soldier.

"See?" Nate said.

"Oh, what a brave soldier he is." Rachel said, talking more about Nate than the toy soldier which basically looked like a painted clothes pin.

"The kids at school say there isn't a Santa, and that this is just a clothes pin Dad painted because he couldn't afford to buy a real one." Nate said.

"What nonsense!" Rachel insisted.

"There is a Santa Claus, isn't there, Rachel?" Nate asked.

"Yes, Nate." Rachel said with assuredness.

 _There is a spirit in the world of generosity_

 _That brings good things to all of us wherever we may be._

 _So I believe in Santa Claus, for it can't be denied_

 _That he is generosity personified._

 _Yes there is a Santa Claus for children everywhere._

 _Though you may watch the chimney tops and never see him there._

 _People say his magic sleigh flies in the sky above,_

 _But you might find it anywhere you find unselfish love!_

 _Oh yes, he really does exist, and Santa Claus will live._

 _As long as hearts can realize how good it feels to give!_

 _So when you are feeling blue, keep up your hope because_

 _If there is kindness in this world, there is a Santa Claus!_

Nate nodded and joined into his sister's song.

" _Yes there is a Santa Claus…_ "

Nate and Rachel hugged as everyone smiled and went on enjoying themselves as Erik could only watch that brave little soldier with his leg in a brace.

* * *

Okay, this section and the next three were why I wanted to do this.


	7. Birthday Party of the King

Chapter 6: Birthday Party of the King

An instant after Rachel assured Nate there was a Santa Claus, Erik and Kurt were flying above London again, courtesy of Charles.

"Haven't you shown me enough already?" Charles asked more out of the guilt over what Ruthie would think of her big brother if she were alive today rather than the frustration he had shown to those children carolers the day before last.

"There is another place to visit." Charles explained. "Even though you refused the offer yesterday."

"Oh no!" Erik said as that guilt swelled even more. "Not my nephew David's dinner party!"

But it was too late. The quartet was right in the middle of a modest but well-kept home. David was there with his wife, a woman similar to Ruthie but with green hair and blue eyes.

"Too Uncle Erik!" David called out just as Scott had done at his own home to the same lukewarm reception.

"That stingy man who shuns you every time you see him?" Lorna asked.

"Have pity on him, Lorna." David asked.

"Pity?" Lorna asked. "For a man so rich? His entire business is solely to be making a profit."

"Profit, yes." David said. "But how do the profits profit him? He takes it into his head to dislike us and be gloomy in Warren's old place. I plan on giving him the same invitation I give him every year until he finally accepts for I pity him."

"How can you have so much patience, David?" Lorna asked, obviously ashamed of herself.

"Because my mother always spoke highly of him and no one my mother loved so much can be all bad." David said simply as everyone went back to the party, somehow even merrier than before.

Erik however, was weeping silently, especially as his sister's favorite song was playing in the background.

"Why this remorse?" Charles asked.

"Every year he gives me a gift." Erik said with a heavy sigh and a trembling voice. "And I toss it away. I never understood such things."

"But gifts have been a part of Christmas from the very beginning." Charles pointed out. "See that tiny stable under the tree? Perhaps your young companion can tell you."

Kurt, more out of instinct than anything else, began singing a song his mother had taught him as Erik looked at an ornament depicting the nativity.

 _Christmas Trees are brightly lighted._

 _Through the world the church bells ring._

 _Great and small are all invited_

 _To the birthday party of the King._

 _Mighty prince and humble peasant._

 _Each will choose a gift to bring._

 _Do you have a birthday present_

 _For the birthday party of the King?_

 _Once wise men came in his honor_

 _Bringing incense, myrrh, and gold._

 _But what is gold to a ruler_

 _Who has all the stars to hold?!_

 _Do you know what gift will please him?_

 _Please him more than anything?!_

 _Bring a heart that really loves him_

 _To the birthday party… Of the King . . .!_

Erik smiled at the song as he felt his heart swell up at the familiar, but somehow new, story, but then his smile fell as he thought of the Summers house.

"But what about that other child?" Erik asked Charles. "So tiny he seems little more than a baby himself. What of Little Nate?"

"I see a vacant seat in the chimney corner." Charles said solemnly. "And a little clutch without an owner carefully preserved."

As Charles said this, Erik found himself in the Summers house to find the scene Charles described and a family in mourning as they left for the cemetery.

"Oh dear god, let it not be." Erik gasped as he collapses down at the crutch and wept for the boy his callousness would kill.

* * *

Next chapter, my favorite song in the whole film.


	8. One Little Boy

Chapter Seven: One Little Boy

"Little Nate gone?" Erik asked as he continued to weep. "This cannot be!"

"Why not?" Charles asked as he walked up behind Erik. "Who cares?"

One little boy is just a dot

In all the human race.

"What?" Erik asked, aghast as he thought of both Nate and his nephew David when he was little.

 _One little boy is just a spot_

 _Upon a planet's face!_

"No!" Erik shouted out, speaking unconsciously like his former rather than latter self.

 _And when he is no longer there,_

 _A billion take the place_

 _Of one… Little boy…_

At this, Erik had to say something, and as he spoke, he unconsciously thought of the children he had known such as Ruthie and her own son, David.

 _But one little boy can sing a song_

 _And have a world of fun._

 _One little boy can grow up strong_

 _And leap and jump and run!_

 _And you would want to see him grow_

 _If he would be your son._

 _That one little boy._

Charles shook his head and continued.

 _If he passes on…_

 _Utterly, he is gone…_

 _There's one less in the nation…_

 _Let him rest in peace…_

 _And he will decrease…_

 _The surplus population…_

"No!" Erik called out in horror at his own callousness. "No!"

"That's what you thought not long ago!" Charles pointed out darkly as all Erik could do was bow his head in shame.

"That's what I thought, but now I know." Erik conceded as he picked up the painted clothespin Scott had made Nate for Christmas.

 _One little boy who cannot walk_

 _Is not a broken toy._

 _One little boy can laugh and talk_

 _And fill a home with joy._

 _And no one else can take the place_

 _Of that one little boy._

For a moment, Erik could swear he saw Nate sitting in his seat as he walked up, only to find it empty as he dropped the toy soldier.

 _That one… Little boy._

At this, Erik one again collapsed at the chair and crutch and wept as Charles simply disappeared as he could barely perceive the room changing back into his parlor as Kurt came up and took Erik's for comfort, and he gratefully accepted it.

"Vhat next?" Kurt groaned as they heard the stroke of midnight and all looked out to see a solitary blue figure in a silver outfit.

* * *

Well, we're coming close to the end now. Also, this song was my favorite in the whole movie.


End file.
